Embodiments of the invention generally relate to software builds on computer systems and, more particularly, to installation and configuration of software packages on computer systems.
As software products become increasingly complex, the options for advanced installation and configuration become too difficult for normal users to manage. For example, a user installing a Linux® distribution may be presented with a thousand different software packages that can be installed optionally. Linux distributions (distros) represent different versions of the Linux operating system built on top of the Linux kernel and include a large collection of software applications. Linux distributions are normally segmented into packages, with each package including specific applications or service. Although some Linux distributions can install packages that include the kernel and core operating system components in a predetermined configuration, other software packages and components must be carefully configured to be useful and to work correctly with other software, resulting in administrators reviewing and reconfiguring software components.
Templates or response-file driven configurations can provide a better option to reuse good default settings, but a template file can become stale and individual settings are difficult to review.